velvet treatment in Display tank

[merlinpi]

i have a 76 gallon that was set up 5 months ago, had a clown fish, canary blenny, royal gamma, that were quarantined for 80 days introduced about a month ago, and, at the same time, i moved a blue tang 7 years old from my 7 year old tank that had nothing introduced into it for 6 + years ( i am following its growth on tank size).
I also introduced 5 weeks ago 3 small coral frags that were dipped in CoralRx prior to introduction.
woke up to blenny and gamma dead, clownfish covered with velvet, and tang with some velvet.
tang is too big for my QT, and besides, impossible to catch without further hurting it.
so I took the decision to remove corals and CUC to QT, leave live rock and treat with melaplex, Cupramine, selcon, and garlic. I also increased temp to 79 to hasten cycle of parasite.
symptoms improved after 3 days, both fish are eating well, normal activity and so on.
i am planning to treat with Cupramine for 30 days as i kept the levels of copper on the low side 0.16-0.18 ( i have a peppermint shrimp that would stubbornly also escape me in in the rocks, still alive and well day #12 of treatment).

the issue:
1-can fish be asymptomatic velvet carriers? so if after treatment i introduce other fish (of course yes after quarantine), they can get it from those 2?
2- i will have the task of removing copper from the DT where they are treated (yay). planning giant water changes, cuprasorb, carbon, and triton Detox, close follow up on copper levels (Hanna HR), and reintroducing corals, invert after 2 weeks of 0 levels. Anyone has any input/experience in this?

thanks.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

i have a 76 gallon that was set up 5 months ago, had a clown fish, canary blenny, royal gamma, that were quarantined for 80 days introduced about a month ago, and, at the same time, i moved a blue tang 7 years old from my 7 year old tank that had nothing introduced into it for 6 + years ( i am following its growth on tank size).
I also introduced 5 weeks ago 3 small coral frags that were dipped in CoralRx prior to introduction.
woke up to blenny and gamma dead, clownfish covered with velvet, and tang with some velvet.
tang is too big for my QT, and besides, impossible to catch without further hurting it.
so I took the decision to remove corals and CUC to QT, leave live rock and treat with melaplex, Cupramine, selcon, and garlic. I also increased temp to 79 to hasten cycle of parasite.
symptoms improved after 3 days, both fish are eating well, normal activity and so on.
i am planning to treat with Cupramine for 30 days as i kept the levels of copper on the low side 0.16-0.18 ( i have a peppermint shrimp that would stubbornly also escape me in in the rocks, still alive and well day #12 of treatment).

the issue:
1-can fish be asymptomatic velvet carriers? so if after treatment i introduce other fish (of course yes after quarantine), they can get it from those 2?
2- i will have the task of removing copper from the DT where they are treated (yay). planning giant water changes, cuprasorb, carbon, and triton Detox, close follow up on copper levels (Hanna HR), and reintroducing corals, invert after 2 weeks of 0 levels. Anyone has any input/experience in this?

thanks.

Hi,

I’ve heard of eels being asymptomatic carriers, generally with true velvet, no fish survive long enough to be carriers.

I don’t have a lot of experience with removing Cupramine post-treatment. With Coppersafe, big water changes and some chemical absorbent works fine. The key here is how much Cupramine will bind with the rock/sand.

Did you see really rapid breathing? I find a lot of cases of long term marine ich being misidentified as velvet. With velvet you’ll see rapid breathing and hovering in water flow before any skin symptoms.

When you wrote melaplex, did you mean metroplex?

.16 to .18 is less than 1/2 the normal Cupramine dose. I would be worried that it won’t control the velvet very well.

Raising the water temperature is an old school treatment for freshwater ich that got misapplied to marine diseases - it actually helps the parasite. That said, 79 degrees is fine, people who raise to like 84 are going to see more issues.

Jay

 

[threebuoys]

I've had good luck using cuprisorb to remove Cupramine from the water. I don't remember exactly how long it to remove the copper, seems like maybe a week. For me, cuprisorb removed copper faster than activated charcoal did. You will need to test for copper regularly until you are satisfied it has been removed. I personally do not like the Seachem copper test kit. I use the Hanna checker.

 

[MnFish1]

i have a 76 gallon that was set up 5 months ago, had a clown fish, canary blenny, royal gamma, that were quarantined for 80 days introduced about a month ago, and, at the same time, i moved a blue tang 7 years old from my 7 year old tank that had nothing introduced into it for 6 + years ( i am following its growth on tank size).
I also introduced 5 weeks ago 3 small coral frags that were dipped in CoralRx prior to introduction.
woke up to blenny and gamma dead, clownfish covered with velvet, and tang with some velvet.
tang is too big for my QT, and besides, impossible to catch without further hurting it.
so I took the decision to remove corals and CUC to QT, leave live rock and treat with melaplex, Cupramine, selcon, and garlic. I also increased temp to 79 to hasten cycle of parasite.
symptoms improved after 3 days, both fish are eating well, normal activity and so on.
i am planning to treat with Cupramine for 30 days as i kept the levels of copper on the low side 0.16-0.18 ( i have a peppermint shrimp that would stubbornly also escape me in in the rocks, still alive and well day #12 of treatment).

the issue:
1-can fish be asymptomatic velvet carriers? so if after treatment i introduce other fish (of course yes after quarantine), they can get it from those 2?
2- i will have the task of removing copper from the DT where they are treated (yay). planning giant water changes, cuprasorb, carbon, and triton Detox, close follow up on copper levels (Hanna HR), and reintroducing corals, invert after 2 weeks of 0 levels. Anyone has any input/experience in this?

thanks.

1. If the shrimp is alive, your copper levels were not high enough in all probability.
2. Fish can become immune to velvet - it is not 100% fatal.
3. It is also possible that it was not velvet.
4. When you do to re-add fish - it may occur that whatever disease occurred - will return to the new fish - unless you make sure your copper levels are adequate - and accurate

PS - welcome to R2R - I did not see Jay's post above!

 

[NowGlazeIT]

the issue:
1-can fish be asymptomatic velvet carriers? so if after treatment i introduce other fish (of course yes after quarantine), they can get it from those 2?
2- i will have the task of removing copper from the DT where they are treated (yay). planning giant water changes, cuprasorb, carbon, and triton Detox, close follow up on copper levels (Hanna HR), and reintroducing corals, invert after 2 weeks of 0 levels. Anyone has any input/experience in this?

thanks.

1- yes, if treatment fails to remove all velvet parasites
2- it’s not advised because the copper will bind to your rock, bio media, or substrate. Resulting in more frequently testing and copper dosing to maintain therapeutic levels, as your substrate binds it up.

 

[merlinpi]

Hi,

I’ve heard of eels being asymptomatic carriers, generally with true velvet, no fish survive long enough to be carriers.

I don’t have a lot of experience with removing Cupramine post-treatment. With Coppersafe, big water changes and some chemical absorbent works fine. The key here is how much Cupramine will bind with the rock/sand.

Did you see really rapid breathing? I find a lot of cases of long term marine ich being misidentified as velvet. With velvet you’ll see rapid breathing and hovering in water flow before any skin symptoms.

When you wrote melaplex, did you mean metroplex?

.16 to .18 is less than 1/2 the normal Cupramine dose. I would be worried that it won’t control the velvet very well.

Raising the water temperature is an old school treatment for freshwater ich that got misapplied to marine diseases - it actually helps the parasite. That said, 79 degrees is fine, people who raise to like 84 are going to see more issues.

Jay

yes no question it was unfortunately marine velvet. A Sunday all the fish were fine, Monday, the blenny was rubbing on the corner of the aquarium (retrospectively noticed...), Tuesday morning, while aquarium stil dark i notice the 2 dead fish, i spot a flashlight and the clown was breathing rapidly, on surface, covered with a whitish film and numerous white spots.....

LOL i meant Pimafix....

my problem was that i have a beautiful cleaner shrimp in there that really doesn't want to get caught...

 

[merlinpi]

I've had good luck using cuprisorb to remove Cupramine from the water. I don't remember exactly how long it to remove the copper, seems like maybe a week. For me, cuprisorb removed copper faster than activated charcoal did. You will need to test for copper regularly until you are satisfied it has been removed. I personally do not like the Seachem copper test kit. I use the Hanna checker.

+1 on Hanna, Seachem was more like a guessing game i felt.